“I tried [tramadol] once in a training time trial as I didn’t want to try anything new in a race,” he said. “I didn’t actually like it at all and I completely disagreed with it as well because of what it did.” Dowsett said that it gave him a hangover the next day, and made it hard for him to judge his training effort.

“It’s not present in other sports to rely so heavily on that sort of thing. While we’re now one of, if not the cleanest sport, there is still this reliance on things that come in tablet form,” said Dowsett.